Key Benefits of a Paperless Office

Key Benefits of a Paperless Office

Enterprise document management systems (EDMS) offers something that businesses could never imagine even ten years ago: a paperless office. No more big files to worry about. No more scrambling to find that contract that you just put down a second ago. On the other hand, more keeping files on your physical desk to see them all the time. With so many components of a paperless office to consider, these benefits are the most important.

1. Less physical bulk to store

EDMS will cut your physical storage needs drastically. You won’t need a warehouse to house all your documents. Instead, you can put them on the cloud. This will save your business phenomenal amounts of space. As the years go on, you’re just going to get more out of this perk. A business that’s been running strong for ten years will save more space by upgrading to digital storage than a business that’s only been running for two years.

2. Save search time

Even the best, most organized filing system in the world has errors. It’s just human nature. Even if your filing system never lost or misplaced a file, you’d still have to go and get a document every time you want to refer to it. This will really eat into your time. Some businesses have members of the staff who spend their entire days hunting down obscure files. Instead of all of this, you can have a search function. It’s just that easy to find things in a paperless office. EDMS will revolutionize the way your staff spends their days.

3. Easy compliance verification

It’s basically never safe to throw something away anymore. If you’re audited fifteen years from now, they’re going to want to know what you were doing today. EDMS provide a unique trail for every document in your system. You can find everything that you need to show the chain of command with files and documents. While you will hopefully seldom have to use this feature, it’s an undeniable benefit of EDMS.

4. Low cost customer communication

Customers today don’t want to get physical mail. You don’t want to send physical mail. It’s possible to send communication more quickly and cheaply online. This lets you provide links and measure progress. You can directly chat with the client about their needs, through email. Physical newsletters are over. Internet communications are faster, easier, and what clients want in the first place. A paperless office will actually boost your engagement with your customers.

5. Environmental considerations

Recycle, use less paper, and save the planet. It’s pretty great to try to protect the Earth (after all, all your clients live there!), but the benefit doesn’t come just from doing something nice for the earth. A paperless office can be a huge publicity boost. While more and more businesses are using EDMS to run a paperless office, it’s not yet totally common. If your client base loves environmentalism, going paperless can really boost your street cred.

There are plenty of benefits of running a paperless office. These five key points are more than enough to justify getting started. Look into EDMS, gather your physical files, and get ready to go paperless.